This is a really interesting study recently published in a Chiropractic journal showing the benefits of structural Chiropractic care for a patient with multiple symptoms related to his neck.
This patient saw a Chiropractor with complaints of neck pain, headaches, vertigo and numbness down to his right hand. The neck pain and numbness to his hand started only a few days before he saw the Chiropractor but he had been having headaches, and vertigo for a while.
The Chiropractor performed a structural spinal exam which showed the patients head was shifted to the side when viewing him from the front and forward when viewed from the side. He also had a reduction in the normal forward curve of the bones in his neck.
The patient started on a corrective Chiropractic program that involved adjustments, exercises and traction. Each of these is an important part of the care and deal with different aspects of the misalignment. The adjustments free up fixations and restore motion to the spinal joints. Then structurally based adjustments are used to reset the nervous system and stimulate the joints to be in the normal position. Specific corrective exercises strengthen the muscles to hold the spine in the corrected position. Finally traction stretches and reforms the ligaments that hold the spine in place to now hold it in the corrected position. These are not things that can be done once or twice to be effective. This patient was seen a total of 36 visits before he was re-evaluated.
It is no different from wanting to change any other part of your body. If you want to lose weight you can\’t just diet one day a week and expect to look different in a few days. Or if you want to build muscles mass one day of lifting weights isn\’t going to cut it.
At this patients re-evaluation he reported his neck pain had decreased from a 7 out of 10 to a 1 out of 10 on the pain scale. He also stated that the numbness in his hand, headaches and vertigo were completely gone. The re-exam of his spine showed the shifts in his spine and the curve in his neck had all improved.
Here is where this case gets really interesting. At this point he was unable to continue care due to demands on his time from work. He did not receive any care for over 10 months then was able to come back in to see the Chiropractor. When he returned a new exam was performed and showed all of the changes to his spine were stable and his symptoms had not returned.
This is a great case showing that if you put in the effort now to have a healthier spine the results will pay off for long term health.
